[Mihalic] Pidgin in journalism

[Andy Bennett]

I'm guessing that a spell checker and auto-correct feature on someone's computer also could have affected the way this turned out.  Unless you have gone to the trouble to build a dictionary for your spell checker in Tok Pisin (I did this on a pervious computer, then failed to copy it to my new one) and don't pay attention, you will get changes like dispela-display (although mine wants to change "dispela" to "dispel"), and "i" to "I".

Andy
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Vince 
  To: Mihalic Project 
  Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 11:42 AM
  Subject: Re: [Mihalic] Pidgin in journalism


  This kind of Tok Pisin is not surprising to me. I do not know what sort of education Joseph Kabui had. If he went through Uni he would have had a kind of Tok Pisin completely removed from the ordinary person born and raised in a village and going through a village school only.

  Then the questions I have are:
  Who was the interviewer and that person's skill in Tok Pisin?
  Who transcribed the interview from the tape to written text and that person's skill in Tok Pisin?
      e.g. who typed this: "long December last year long check up"
          whoever it was did not know Tok Pisin.
  Then the layout person and that person's skill in Tok Pisin?
  Then who was the proof reader and that person's skill in Tok Pisin?
  Then the editor of the paper and that person's skill in Tok Pisin?

  By reading the text as given one has no idea of what was actually said by Joseph Kabui!

  Vince Ohlinger



  ----- Original Message ----
  From: John Burton <john.burton at anu.edu.au>
  To: mihalic at anu.edu.au
  Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:46:48 AM
  Subject: Re: [Mihalic] Pidgin in journalism


  Yes “mi sapos long go” has been common for while now and is similar to “he would of gone” in English. If you want to be pure about it, you shouldn’t hear the common “bihain long haus” (‘later than …’), but you hear it everywhere.



  J



  From:lila.san.roque at anu.edu.au [mailto:lila.san.roque at anu.edu.au] 
  Sent: Wednesday, 11 June 2008 4:23 PM
  To: john.burton at anu.edu.au
  Cc: mihalic at anu.edu.au
  Subject: Re: [Mihalic] Pidgin in journalism



  Wow this is pretty interesting.



  It looks like there is some adjustment of Tok Pisin words to English spelling, regardless of the meaning of the English word (dispela - display). Also a kind of calquing of English constructions based on sound similarity (rather than semantic/functional equivalence) in `display taim mi sapos long go' for `the time I was supposed to go'. I haven't heard this construction before but then again haven't been speaking Tok Pisin for a while, do others find it familiar?

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: John Burton <john.burton at anu.edu.au>
  Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 4:03 pm
  Subject: [Mihalic] Pidgin in journalism
  To: mihalic at anu.edu.au

  > From the Post-Courier today. Comments?

  > J

  > Simple Kabui

  > JOSEPH Kabui stopped taking his life-saving medicine four months ago because he didn’t have the money to pay for it and felt ashamed to ask for help.
  > “Yu save sister blong mi, mi no man blong askim long samting sapos em I concernim mi,’’ he told me in his last media interview on Friday afternoon immediately after he arrived in Buka from his Manus trip.
  > About 12 hours later, he collapsed from what is believed to have been a massive heart attack and was dead before he could be rushed to the nearby Buka Hospital.
  > Late president Kabui, who could give me an interview at his Gateway because he was either tired or tied up singled out to me from his Gateway room after returning from the Manus Governor’s conference: “ringim mi tomoro (Friday) na bai yumi stori.”
  > Kabui, the villager, as he was described in numerous eulogies and tributes in a State funeral in Port Moresby when asked why he did not want to get more medicine supplies said he had a lot of faith and trust in a local brand of water reputed to have healing powers and that he did not want to infringe the Autonomous Bougainville Government funds for his own use.
  > PC: “President, why yu no laik toksave long Masono olsem Administrator long redim sampla moni blong yu long go long Mosbi tasol long December last year long check up?
  > Kabui: …mi gat planti wok long wokim, display taim mi sapos long go long check up em mi bin stap long wanpla important miting wantaim olo lida blong yumi na tu mi bin tied up long miting blong displa education subsidy blong ol sumatin,ol pikinini bilong yumi.”
  > PC: Taim marasin i pinis, why yu no laik kisim moa supply?
  > Kabui: Sista blong mi, tru tumas mi wari tumas long planti wok long wokim na mi no tingim tumas marasin. Yu save sister blong mi, marasin em traipla moni tumas tu, na yu save mi no man blong askim long samting sapos em I concernim mi, so mi bin save kisim tasol ol liklik antibiotics’’
  > PC: SO as we speak, you sure need medicine president? Can I suggest we do a fundraising for you?
  > Kabui: thankyou, mi orait, review blong mi long Australia em long display mun, maybe two weeks time (bai mi mas check wantim Townsville) tasol, mi mas lukluk long painim sampla toea long kisim mi go, bikos last check up I costim mi planti moni stret.”
  > This was part of the last interview held with late President Kabui on Friday (not Thursday as we published yesterday).



  > _______________________________________________
  > Mihalic mailing list
  > Mihalic at anu.edu.au
  > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/mihalic



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Mihalic mailing list
  Mihalic at anu.edu.au
  http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/mihalic
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/mihalic/attachments/20080612/5e1f44c8/attachment.html